Wines Of The Rhône

Wines of the Rhône

Drinking fine wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy has become eye-wateringly expensive. Five years ago a Euro cost less than 90 US cents. Now it costs around $1.42. Recent superb vintages and an insatiable demand from the nouveau riche of Asia, Russia and India have resulted in prices in Euros doubling. A bottle which cost US$50 in 2000 will now cost you $142 plus freight, which has also doubled with the increase in oil prices, and duty. Most fine wines from the New World have risen with the tide, so short of remortgaging the house or, perish the thought, taking the pledge, what’s to do?

France is a country of many wine regions and while superstar bottles from the Rhône valley sell for high prices, there are a number of affordable, consistent and increasingly competently made wines from this area.

There are two very different parts to the Rhône valley from the viticultural point of view. In the northern part the slopes are steep and the vines are largely confined to narrow terraces. Here are the appellations of Côte Rotie, Hermitage, Cornas, Saint-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage. The wines are full, tannic, sturdy, solid and austere in their youth; they need time, and last well. It is nearly all red, and made from the Syrah grape.

As you go south, you cross an invisible but very evident climatic barrier, known as the Midi. Olive trees and cypresses replace nuts and fruit; it is warmer and drier too. Here the valley is wider, and the vines are grown in a geographical circle, some 50 kilometers in diameter, with Châteauneuf-du-Pape its centre and where the best wines are produced. Ninety-five percent of the Rhône valley wines are produced in this circle, again mostly red.

Not only the climate, but the grape varieties and the soil structure are different in the southern Rhône. The predominant grape is Grenache, which produces alcohol and spice, but not acidity and finesse. There is Syrah, but also Mourvèdre, increasingly fashionable in the top estates, which gives acidity, tannin and is arguably better suited to the terroir than Syrah. There are 13 other varieties, some of them white. Here the soil is not granite or schist, as in the north, but consists of large pudding stones (galets) of various origins, brought down the valley by successive glaciers a millennia ago, and lying on limestone, sand, gravel, chalk and much else, usually mixed.

All this gives wines quite different from those of the north. The wines of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and its satellites: Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Cairanne, Beaumes de Venise, plus the rest of the Côtes du Rhône Villages, and Lirac on the opposite (western) side of the Rhône river are all now appellations in their own right. They are softer, sweeter, more aromatic, more alcoholic and not so classy; but they evolve sooner.

The percentage of white wines produced is small. The best northern section is Condrieu, fashionable and expensive. Made from the delightful, flowery and mountain-herbal flavoured Viognier grape, this is delicious, rare, best non-oaked and consumed young. Other northern whites include Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage, still and sparkling Saint-Péray and Hermitage, which is the least available and most expensive. Produced from Roussanne and Marsanne, these white wines provide interesting, non-Chardonnay flavours for early drinking, though the top, oak-aged Hermitages can improve with bottle age.

White wines of the southern Rhône are quite different. They come from a mixture of grape varieties like the reds: Grenache Blanc, Bouboulenc, Clairette, Marsanne and several more obscure names can be found, as well as Viognier, which is not always permitted for appellation contrôlée wine. If there is just a small percentage, this can be hidden, but if the wine is largely or exclusively produced from Viognier, it can only be a Vin de Pays. Some of these are as good as average Condrieu, and a lot less expensive. Modern appellation wines are increasingly well made, vinified and reared under temperature controlled conditions, and are neither heavy nor alcoholic. However I find white Châteauneuf-du-Pape too fat and oily. There are lesser wines at cheaper prices which are more rewarding.

And then there are the rosés: Tavel, west of Châteauneuf on the other side of the Rhône, is the only exclusively rosé appellation in France. Tavel used to be over-alcoholic. Today, made by modern methods, it is delightfully fragrant and fruity, and not expensive. Elsewhere in the southern sector there are other rosés, the best being Côte du Rhône Villages.

Lastly there are the Rhône valley satellites: East of Valence, up in the hills, lies Clairette de Die. It is a pretty drive, especially in the spring, but the wines are not worth it. Opposite, behind the first ridge of mountains, is the upper valley of the river Ardèche. Here Burgundian merchant Louis Latour produces a Vin de Pays from Chardonnay, while his Beaujolais counterpart, Georges Duboeuf makes a Vin de Pays from Viognier. Finally, where the Côtes du Rhône meets the Languedoc is the Costières de Nimes, while on the eastern side are the Côtes de Ventoux and Côtes du Luberon.

What vintages should you look for in Rhone wines? Whites and rosés should be drunk young. Reds: if still available, 2001. The 2002 is less good, but 2003 is rich, full, very fruity, and rather more classic than in Bordeaux and Burgundy; 2004 is very classic, 2005 better still, and 2006 shows much promise. Sadly in 2007 hail ravaged large parts of the northern Rhône. We can only wait and hope that what was left proves to be good.

Clive Coates MW (Master of Wine) is one of the world’s leading wine authorities. His definitive books on the wines of France include An Encyclopedia of Wines of France, the Wines of Bordeaux and The Great Wines of France. He is currently working on a second edition of his prize-winning opus on the wines of Burgundy, Cote d’Or, A Celebration of the Great Wines of Burgundy. Clive Coates is a consultant to Vino Veritas. This article was written exclusively for Good Taste Magazine 2008.